If you're currently in need of something that will make you lose your appetite, or if you just like to freak yourself out, read this Wikipedia article on Carl Tanzler. I started reading this while eating a salad and had to stop after the first paragraph and my second bite. Even Ryan Gosling couldn't make this undying devotion seem romantic.

Also, everyone please read The Kite Runner. I finished it the other night, and it was incredible. One of the reviews on the book said that some portions of it were "excruciating to read" and that's basically the best way I can describe it. I wasn't 100% into Khaled Hosseini's writing style (each chapter was comprised of numerous, powerfully structured sections, but the pattern happened so often that it lost its impact... it's hard to explain, but you'll get what I mean if you read it) but the story was so beautiful, and so horrible that I felt that it seriously weighed on my soul. It also was written from the perspective of someone coming from a totally different culture, and I realized that I tend to read narratives from people who I agree with socially and morally, and it really pushed my mind so much when Amir wasn't choosing the actions that I would choose for him. I always wanted the story to bend in ways that it wouldn't. And I think that was the best part of the book. Most of all, it just broke my little American heart. It just made me think about so much. If you're interested at all in the subject of redemption, I really really really recommend reading this.